Isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate)/layered double hydroxide nanocomposites

Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB)/layered double hydroxides (LDHs) nanocomposites were prepared by mixing PHB and poly(ethylene glycol) phosphonates (PEOPAs)‐modified LDH (PMLDH) in chloroform solution. Both X‐ray diffraction data and TEM micrographs of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites indicate that the PMLDHs are randomly dispersed and exfoliated into the PHB matrix. In this study, the effect of PMLDH on the isothermal crystallization behavior of PHB was investigated using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy. Isothermal crystallization results of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites show that the addition of 2 wt % PMLDH into PHB induced more heterogeneous nucleation in the crystallization significantly increasing the crystallization rate and reducing their activation energy. By adding more PMLDH into the PHB probably causes more steric hindrance of the diffusion of PHB, reducing the transportation ability of polymer chains during crystallization, thus increasing the activation energy. The correlation among crystallization kinetics, melting behavior and crystalline structure of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites can also be discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 3337–3347, 2006     

Asymptotic Behavior on a Competition Model Arising from an Unstirred Chemostat

This paper is concerned with the unstirred chemostat model with two-species and one non-reproducingresource.The global attractivity of the positive steady-state solutions of the original system is established.Moreover,the effects of the growth rate on the unique positive equilibrium of the single population model arestudied.     

Engineering issue study of triple harmonic method for in situ flying height analysis

In situ flying height testing technology is becoming more and more important in slider–disk interaction analysis and manufacturing quality control of disk drives and head-related components. Triple harmonic method is a quite promising choice for in situ flying height analysis, compared with other in situ methods reported up to now. This paper reports results of investigations on engineering issues of applying triple harmonic method for in situ flying height analysis. The paper reports results of analysis on the effects of various testing conditions on flying height testing repeatability and accuracy. Results suggest that working at reasonable high channel density and working on the ratio between third and first harmonics will be an advantage in terms of both flying height testing sensitivity and testing repeatability. Comparing with media thickness effect, the gap-length variation among different heads will be important if it is to study flying height difference among different heads and the testing is at high channel density. Also, it is suggested to work at AC erased track, in order to reduce the non-linearity caused by hard transition.     

An implicit method for linear ill‐posed problems with perturbed operators

An implicit iterative method is applied to solving linear ill‐posed problems with perturbed operators. It is proved that the optimal convergence rate can be obtained after choosing suitable number of iterations. A generalized Morozov's discrepancy principle is proposed for the problems, and then the optimal convergence rate can also be obtained by an a posteriori strategy. The convergence results show that the algorithm is a robust regularization method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Almost global existence for Hamiltonian semilinear Klein‐Gordon equations with small Cauchy data on Zoll manifolds

This paper is devoted to the proof of almost global existence results for Klein‐Gordon equations on Zoll manifolds (e.g., spheres of arbitrary dimension) with Hamiltonian nonlinearities, when the Cauchy data are smooth and small. The proof relies on Birkhoff normal form methods and on the specific distribution of eigenvalues of the Laplacian perturbed by a potential on Zoll manifolds. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Liquid phase oxidation of p-chlorotoluene to p-chlorobenzaldehyde over cobalt-doped mesoporous titania with a crystalline framework

Cobalt-doped mesoporous titania with a crystalline framework synthesized by surfactant templating method presented highly selective (99%) and reasonable conversion rate (49%) of catalytic oxidation of para-chlorotoluene to para-chlorobenzaldehyde in acetic acid using aqueous hydrogen peroxide as oxidant for the first time. Recycling of the catalyst indicates that the catalyst can be used a number of times without losing its activity to a greater extent. By contrast, cobalt-doped mesoporous titania without a crystalline structure and cobalt doped the commercial titania, Degussa P25 prepared by impregnation method with the similar concentration of cobalt were found inactive. The effects of catalyst concentration, reaction time, reaction temperature, and solvents on the performance of the catalyst were also investigated.     

In situ hybridization to chitosan/magnetite nanocomposite induced by the magnetic field

Chitosan/magnetite nanocomposite was synthesized induced by magnetic field via in situ hybridization in ambient condition. Results of XRD patterns and TEM micrographs indicated that magnetite particles with 10–20 nm were dispersed in chitosan homogeneously. An interesting result is that magnetite nanoparticles were assembled to form chain-like structures under the influence of the external magnetic field, which mimics the magnetite chains inside of magnetotatic bacteria. The saturated magnetization (Ms) of nano-magnetite in chitosan was 50.54 emu/g, which is as high as 54% of bulk magnetite. The remanence (Mr) and coercivity (Hc) were 4 emu/g and14.8 Oe, respectively, which indicated that magnetite nanoparticles were superparamagnetic. The key of route is that a pre-precipitated chitosan hydrogel membrane, used as chemical reactor, which controlled the precipitation of chitosan precipitation and in situ transformation of magnetite from the precursor simultaneously in the magnetic field environment.     

Learning Theory Estimates via Integral Operators and Their Approximations

The regression problem in learning theory is investigated with least square Tikhonov regularization schemes in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS). We follow our previous work and apply the sampling operator to the error analysis in both the RKHS norm and the L² norm. The tool for estimating the sample error is a Bennet inequality for random variables with values in Hilbert spaces. By taking the Hilbert space to be the one consisting of Hilbert-Schmidt operators in the RKHS, we improve the error bounds in the L² metric, motivated by an idea of Caponnetto and de Vito. The error bounds we derive in the RKHS norm, together with a Tsybakov function we discuss here, yield interesting applications to the error analysis of the (binary) classification problem, since the RKHS metric controls the one for the uniform convergence.     

Studies on calcium‐containing poly(urethane ether)s

The calcium salt of mono(hydroxyethoxyethyl)phthalate [Ca(HEEP)₂] was synthesized by the reaction of diethylene glycol, phthalic anhydride, and calcium acetate. Calcium‐containing poly(urethane ether)s (PUEs) were synthesized by the reaction of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) or tolylene 2,4‐diisocyanate (TDI) with a mixture of Ca(HEEP)₂ and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG₃₀₀ or PEG₄₀₀) with di‐n‐butyltin dilaurate as a catalyst. A series of calcium‐containing PUEs of different compositions were synthesized with Ca(HEEP)₂/PEG₃₀₀ (or PEG₄₀₀)/diisocyanate (HMDI or TDI) molar ratios of 2:2:4, 3:1:4, and 1:3:4 so that the coating properties of the PUEs could be studied. Blank PUEs without calcium‐containing ionic diols were also prepared by the reaction of PEG₃₀₀ or PEG₄₀₀ with HMDI or TDI. The PUEs were well characterized by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, solid‐state cross‐polarity/magic‐angle‐spinning ¹³C NMR, viscosity, solubility, and X‐ray diffraction studies. The thermal properties of the polymers were also studied with thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The PUEs were applied as top coats on acrylic‐coated leather, and their physicomechanical properties were also studied. The coating properties of PUEs, such as the tensile strength, elongation at break, tear strength, water vapor permeability, flexing endurance, cold crack resistance, abrasion resistance, color fastness, and adhesive strength, were better than the standard values. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2865–2878, 2003